Monday, January 10, 2005

TV Time: One

The TV is watching me. It has held me in thrall for quite a few hours now and it won’t let me go. I’ve been flipping through channels like mad and I am joyous there are so many.

There is always my favorite free channel, the BBC. I swear, when Britons speak they sound better informed and smarter than Americans do when they speak the exact same language. It must be the way they seem to enunciate each word where Americans let them roll off their tongues and come out their noses. Much like someone pounding away at a typewriter packs more conviction than someone flicking her fingers on a keyboard. Tack, tack, tack. Clip, clip, clip. Hear the difference?

I’ve a ton of work to be done, quizzes to check and papers to grade. But my body has been frozen in front of my television screen. There are simply too many interesting things to watch. Don’t you love the National Geographic? I swear these animals seem more human than I previously thought they were.

Before I thought animals were organisms motivated only by basic needs which are programmed into their much simpler brains to ensure their survival. But then here comes the National Geographic telling me certain animals, a monkey species in Japan, even certain hummingbirds, exhibit homosexual behavior! So instead of males shacking up with females, they instead seek out other males and simulate sexual activity. The way I understood the “logic” behind this “deviance” however was that two males unhampered by a reproducing female (who could not leave the nest) could then gather more food for the “family unit.” Purely functional then. I wonder if they enjoy the sex as much if at all.

I was shocked, aghast. Gay monkeys and birds were beyond my comprehension and previously unimaginable! But if the National Geographic tells me so, then I am convinced. What other proof need I?